Mann, Pferd, Kuh 1918

Heinrich Campendonk made this painting of a man, horse and cow with oil paint. The palette feels pulled from folk art and fairytales, like a Bavarian stained glass. The shapes are simplified, but not without texture and some beautiful dark outlining. Up close, look at how Campendonk has rendered the animals. The horse in the center is a ghostly grey, almost blending into the forest background, while the cow to the right is red and blue, like an uncanny sunset. Notice the cow’s strange blue vertical stripes. They are like an optical illusion, vibrating on the canvas. The edges of the forms are loose, as if the colors are bleeding into one another. Campendonk’s paintings from this period share some sensibility with the paintings of Franz Marc, who also painted animals in visionary colors. Both artists embraced ambiguity, leaving room for multiple interpretations and emotional experiences.